Hunters prepare for bears
As Monday dawns, several thousand hunters will take to the woods for the start of the annual six-day firearm "buck" season when hunters can use shotguns. And among them will be several thousand hunters who also have a permit to take a black bear, just the fourth time this century that New Jersey has sanctioned an open season on bears.
As of Saturday evening there were about 1,700 black bear permits remaining out of 10,000 made available. Once a hunter has the proper hunting and firearms license, to get a bear permit costs just a $2 administrative fee.
The hunt is confined to the area west of Interstate 287 and north of Interstate 78 and further subdivided into four zones. Most of Sussex County is in zones 1 and 2, where most of the permits were sold. Those zones include the area north of Interstate 80 and west of Route 517 until it meets Route 15 in Sparta, then west of 15 until it meets Interstate 80.
Zone 3 is to the east of Zone 2, with Interstates 287 and 80 serving as its eastern and southern borders.
Zone 4 is that area between Interstates 80 and 78 and from Interstate 287 west to the Delaware River.
Hunters are allowed to have a permit from two different zones but are still limited to harvesting one bear, of either sex, during the season.
While bears have been spotted in every county of the state this year, the greatest concentration of bears, estimated to be nearing 3,500, is in the northwestern corner of New Jersey where the hunt is held.
The 2010 New Jersey bear status report notes that the birth rate for black bears is at 2.9 cubs per litter, with one litter in Blairstown confirmed at six cubs in the spring of 2010. That number compares to an average of two cubs per litter in most other parts of the country. The number of bears born in New Jersey last winter is estimated at 1,000.
Using population estimates of specific areas, wildlife biologists have determined that bear populations in New York and Pennsylvania are about one bear for every three square miles. In the part of New Jersey where hunting is allowed, that ratio is about three bears for every one square mile.
The daily hours for bear hunting coincide with those for deer hunting, a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset. If a hunter is successful in taking a bear, it must be brought to a designated bear-check station. There are three stations in Sussex County -- at the former forest maintenance building on state Route 23 north in Franklin; the Flatbrook-Roy Wildlife Management Area on county Route 615, just south of the village of Layton; and at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area on Fredon-Springdale Road in Fredon.
The Warren County check station is located at the Pequest Wildlife Management Area on Route 46 in Mansfield.The stations will be open from noon to 7 p.m. each day of the hunt. A fifth check station at Black River Wildlife Management Area on North Road in Chester will be open from noon to 7 p.m. Monday and Saturday, the last day of the hunt.
While most hunters consider shooting a bear in its den to be unsportsmanlike, New Jersey is one of only three states to specifically ban taking a bear in its den.
But bear "sleeping" on the ground is not necessarily a bear in its den. Bears will use many materials or sites for a den, from an open nest to brush piles, fallen trees, crevices in rock piles, excavations, hollow trees, and even human structures. In fact, bears have been found sleeping under porches in densely populated Newton over the years. Some bears will also make nests of grasses, twigs or other material within the den. A "bear sleeping in a cave" makes a good Davy Crockett yarn, but is not tied to fact.
And bears in New Jersey are not true hibernators. Pregnant females might sleep through the winter, giving birth in mid- to late January. Males, barren females and females with yearlings often will be active through the winter, scavenging when there is little snow.
In settling on having the bear hunt coincide with the buck season, biologists said most of the pregnant females would be denned up by the first week in December, with other bears would still be around, lessening the chances pregnant females would be shot.
In the 2010 hunt, when 592 bears were harvested, the ratio of about 60 percent females to 40 percent males taken was the same ratio as biologists have found in the general population.
Incidentally, another 90 bears were reported killed in traffic by vehicles last year.
Biologist will monitor the daily harvest of the hunt and can make recommendations to the Fish and Wildlife director, who has authority to halt the hunt within 24 hours based on the numbers.
No limit has been announced publicly.
Of the 118 tagged bears taken in last year's hunt, 20 percent were known nuisance bears or bears tagged at nuisance sites, including two that had previously denned under residents' decks.
Of the 592 bears taken last year, Sussex County had the most with 338 bears, followed by 112 in Warren County, 82 in Morris County, 59 in Passaic County, and one in Bergen County.
Fifty-four of the 59 bears taken in Passaic County came from West Milford, which is in Zone 3, which, along with Zone 1 in western Sussex and Warren counties, has been the site of most studies of black bears in New Jersey. Neighboring Vernon, also in Zone 3, had the second most harvested at 50, tied with Walpack, located in Zone 1 and entirely within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
The largest bear taken last year had an estimated live weight of more than 750 pounds and was shot in Montville in Morris County on the eastern edge of Zone 3.
In Colonial times the black bear was considered a pest and subject to being shot on sight. The population in New Jersey was nearly wiped out by the early 1900s because many of the forests had been cut down to fuel industry and development in northwestern New Jersey. In 1953, the state recognized the black bear as a game animal, giving it the protection of regulated hunting seasons.
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